Wights
A wight was a reanimated corpse, either human or animal, raised from death by the White Walkers using necromancy to act as their minions. Wights were often referred to collectively as the Army of the Dead, or simply as the dead. Characteristics , a ranger of the Night's Watch.]] A wight was a recently deceased body that had been reanimated by the White Walkers, using the potent dark magic of necromancy. Many stories claim that White Walkers alone had the ability to create wights. Samwell Tarly noted that the wights he had encountered had been dead for weeks, yet they exhibited no signs of rot or decay. Regardless of their eye color while alive, all wights had icy blue eyes like those of their masters, assuming the corpse in question still had intact eyes. Wights were also nigh-indestructible and could withstand an injury that would normally be fatal, including stab wounds and the removal of limbs; even amputated limbs would still move around on their own. Decapitation was ineffective, as the headless corpse would keep moving, albeit robbed of its sensory organs. However, wights were extremely susceptible and vulernable to fire. Their flesh and bones were extremely flammable, as if it were coated in oil: it would easily catch fire and continue to burn if exposed to even a small amount of flame. As a precaution against them, the Free Folk burn their dead so they cannot be revived as wights. Just like the White Walkers, wights can also be killed permanently by weapons made of dragonglass or Valyrian Steel. It was also revealed that if a White Walker died, the wights that it raised would also be instantly destroyed, demonstrating some sort of essential magical bond between the Walkers and their wights. A wight's physical condition would roughly match the condition the corpse was in when it was reanimated. A corpse that was killed in a relatively non-violent way and which was resurrected soon after death would still seem relatively lifelike, conceivably passing off as the living had it not been for the dramatically altered color of their eyes. In contrast, a corpse that died violently or which was resurrected long after it died and it had already begun to decompose would still look like a maimed, rotting corpse. Reanimation would slow the physical process of rot and decay, but otherwise it did not restore previous damage. A corpse with a broken leg will not magically have the leg healed when it is reanimated into a wight. A wight that had been reanimated for a long time, six months to two years, would start to decompose slightly, with parts of its flesh rotting away while other flesh dried out leathery. This did not affect their mobility: wights that had been dead for many years could rot away until they are almost skeletal, with exposed bones held together by sinews and shreds of muscle.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9q1CXdqtXM Wights were not particularly intelligent, and it was debatable if these creatures were truly sapient and possessed self-awareness. They lacked the ability to speak, uttering only bestial growls and hisses. They did seem to be able to carry out the basic attack commands of the White Walkers, but seemed to function on more of a "zombie" level of instinct. They could communicate with each other in a way, as shown when Jon Snow's team tackled a wight in order to capture it, it let out an ear-piercing screech that alerted thousands of other wights to rush to its position. They could remember how to use a sword, albeit in a crude hack-and-slash attack, but they were observed using bows and arrows or other complex tools. Exactly how much wights remembered of their previous lives was unclear, or if they even remembered them at all. The wight of Othor, a member of the Night's Watch, did seem to remember the way to Lord Commander Jeor Mormont's quarters to try to attack him. Non-human races, such as giants, could also be reanimated as wights. The White Walkers were also shown to be capable of reviving any dead animal as a wight, such as horses, snow bears, and dragons. White Walkers had been observed riding horse-wights as mounts. Notable wights * {Wildling girl} - A wildling child who was killed by White Walkers along with the rest of the members of her camp. Was either destroyed over the course of the Great War or upon Arya Stark killing the Night King. * {Jafer Flowers} - A ranger in the Night's Watch who was killed during a ranging mission with Benjen Stark. Burned by Night's Watch. * {Othor} - A ranger in the Night's Watch who was killed during a ranging mission with Benjen Stark. Burned by Jon Snow after he threw a lantern at him. * {Bruni} - A wildling who was a lover of Osha. Disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and later revealed to have been killed and reanimated as a wight upon returning to kill Osha. Burned by Osha after she managed to trap him in their hut and set it aflame. * {Karsi} - A wildling spearwife who led one of the many tribes that retreated to Hardhome. Participated in fending off wights during the massacre of the settlement. Killed by wight children as she couldn't bring herself to kill them, and was later reanimated by the Night King shortly after. Was either destroyed over the course of the Great War or upon Arya Stark killing the Night King * Finn - A recruit for the Night's Watch. Stabbed in the stomach by a wight with a spear, and later burned as a wight by Gared Tuttle. (Player-determinant) * {Captured wight} - A wildling who had died and was reanimated by the White Walkers. He was captured by a group of humans, who used him as evidence to prove to the Seven Kingdoms that the threat of the White Walkers is real. Killed after being stabbed in the chest with a dragonglass dagger by Jon Snow. * {Viserion} - One of the Daenerys Targaryen's three dragons. Struck in the neck by an ice spear thrown by the Night King, who later reanimated him. Destroyed upon Arya Stark killing the Night King. * {Ned Umber} - A Northern lord and the head of House Umber. Killed during the White Walkers attack on Last Hearth. His corpse was impaled to a wall, put at the center of a spiral of made from severed limbs tacked to it. Burned by Beric Dondarrion shortly after being found. * {Eddison Tollett} - Acting Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Struck in the back by a wight during the Battle of Winterfell and reanimated shortly afterwards by the Night King. Was either destroyed in the fighting or upon Arya Stark killing the Night King. * {Lyanna Mormont} - A Northern lady and head of House Mormont. Was killed during the Battle of Winterfell when her torsoe gets crushed by a wight giant. Reanimated shortly afterwards by the Night King, and was either destroyed in the fighting or upon Arya Stark killing the Night King. * {Qhono} - A Dothraki warrior who served Daenerys Targaryen. Was killed during the Battle of Winterfell and reanimated shortly afterwards by the Night King, and was either destroyed in the fighting or upon Arya Stark killing the Night King. History Season 1 During a scouting mission beyond the Wall, Will of the Night's Watch sees the corpse of a young wildling girl standing and walking. He flees from her."Winter Is Coming" The corpses of two members of Benjen Stark's scouting party, Othor and Jafer Flowers, are found in the outskirts of the Haunted Forest near the Wall. They are taken back through the Wall to Castle Black, and Sam notes that despite being dead for weeks, rot hasn't set in. Later that night, they reanimate as wights, and Othor attacks Jon Snow and Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. The creature survives every kind of attack, including impalement and having its arm cut off, until Jon Snow throws a lamp at it, setting it on fire. Both corpses are then burned completely, with Samwell Tarly pointing out their likely nature to all present."The Pointy End" Outside Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Cotter Pyke's rangers discover four wights and wisely burn their bodies."Fire and Blood" Season 2 Surrounded by a snowy fog, Samwell sees a massive army of wights is being led by White Walkers towards the Night's Watch encampment on top of the Fist of the First Men. Some of the White Walkers ride atop wight horses."Valar Morghulis" Season 3 Following the Battle of the Fist of the First Men, a wight chases Samwell Tarly but is stopped by Ghost and then set on fire by Lord Commander Mormont."Valar Dohaeris" All of the black brothers slain at the Fist of the First Men have been turned into wights. Only the mutilated horses have been left behind by the White Walkers."Walk of Punishment" Season 4 A White Walker, riding atop a wight horse, takes the last son of Craster to the abode of his masters at the Lands of Always Winter."Oathkeeper" As Bran Stark and his companions reach the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, they are attacked by a group of wights that emerge from the snow-covered ground. The wights manage to injure Jojen Reed fatally, while Bran, Meera, Hodor, and Summer are saved by the intervention of a mysterious girl, who is actually one of the Children of the Forest. The remaining wights are destroyed by the magic protecting the cave."The Children" Season 5 At Hardhome, as the Free Folk begin to row towards the ships to go back to the Wall with the Night's Watch, a storm suddenly brews atop the hills, a sign that White Walkers are coming. Seeing this sign, Loboda orders the gates to be shut, leaving behind many wildlings. The screams suddenly come to an abrupt ending, and are immediately seen reanimated as Wights. The Wights serve as the executors for the White Walkers during the Massacre at Hardhome. At the end of the massacre, the Night King is seen on the dock, locking eyes with Jon Snow. He slowly raises his arms and reanimates all of the massacred free folk as wights to continue to serve at the will of the White Walkers. Death only strengthens the numbers for the White Walkers, a horrible realization to Jon Snow, Tormund, and the rest of the surviving Free Folk and Night's Watch."Hardhome" Season 6 While in the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran goes behind the Three-Eyed Raven's back and enters a vision where he sees a massive and motionless army of wights gathered by a frozen weir wood tree. As Bran walks through their ranks, he is visibly disturbed yet none of the wights seem to notice him. The Night King, mounted on a wight horse, notices his presence and immediately all the wights in the army turn around to stare at Bran. He then notices the Night King is suddenly standing beside him. As he tries to flee, the Night King grabs Bran's forearm, causing him to cry out in pain and end the vision. Later, as Meera and Hodor are preparing to flee the cave, they notice the air is so cold their breath is visible. Meera goes to the cave's entrance, only to be faced with the Army of the Dead, led by the Night King and three other White Walkers. Leaf and The Children of the Forest use magic projectiles to destroy dozens of wights, but are quickly overwhelmed. They light a fire around the entrance to prevent the wights from entering but the Walkers are able to pass through. The wights end up climbing over the Weirwood and crawling through roots at the top of the cave. Meera and the Children fend off several wights as she desperately tries to get the unconscious Bran out from his vision, but the wights quickly swarm the cave, killing all of the Children of the Forest except for Leaf. As Hodor, Meera and Leaf drag the unconscious Bran down a long tunnel toward the exit, Summer charges at the swarm of wights in an attempt to protect his owner and is quickly and brutally mauled to death. The wights continue forward, crawling on all sides of the tunnel and the ceiling. As they close in, Leaf sacrifices herself, using magic to cause a fiery explosion as she is stabbed to death, buying the other three just enough time to get to a door at the end of the tunnel. With some difficulty Hodor pushes the door open and pulls Bran through, coming back to help Meera close it just as the swarm reaches them. Meera grabs Bran's sled and yells at Hodor to "Hold the door!". Hodor braces himself against the door long enough for Meera and Bran to escape into the tundra. Inevitably, the wights begin to break through the wood of the door and begin scratching and stabbing a visibly distressed Hodor, who sadly watches his friends disappear into the snow. The wights continue to pursue Meera and Bran into the forest. Shortly before the dead can catch up to them, however, the duo are saved by a mysterious figure clad in black. He later identifies himself as Benjen Stark, Bran's long lost uncle and the former First Ranger of the Night's Watch. Season 7 The White Walkers are shown leading the Army of the Dead south, now with increased numbers, having at least three undead giants."Dragonstone" At Winterfell, Jon Snow receives a raven from Tyrion Lannister inviting him to Dragonstone to meet with Daenerys Targaryen, who has begun her war for Westeros and claims the Iron Throne. Sansa Stark and Davos Seaworth both believe he shouldn't go, though Davos recalls how Jon told him that fire kills wights and mentions how Daenerys does have three fire breathing dragons. Later, Jon receives a raven from Samwell Tarly at the Citadel in Oldtown telling him that there is dragonglass beneath Dragonstone, which can kill both White Walkers and wights, convincing him to ride to White Harbor and depart for Dragonstone to try and convince Daenerys to help them in the Great War to come. He leaves Sansa in charge of the North in his absence."Stormborn" Jon tries to make it clear to Daenerys Targaryen that the Army of the Dead is the true enemy, but she is clearly more concerned with Cersei Lannister. However, she later allows him to mine the dragonglass, but is still weary of his unwillingness to bend the knee."The Queen's Justice" Bran Stark wargs into a flock of ravens that fly over the Wall into the Lands of Always Winter. Through the ravens, he sees the Army of the Dead led by the White Walkers and the Night King, travelling south towards Eastwatch-by-the-Sea."Eastwatch" After the Wight Hunt, where a wight is captured by Jon Snow and his party, using four anchoring chains, the dead dragon Viserion is pulled out from underneath the icy water. The Night King kneels on the ground, placing a hand on the dragon and raising the corpse of Viserion as a wight."Beyond the Wall" The captured wight is presented by Sandor Clegane and Jon Snow to the attendants of the Parley in King's Landing. Sandor demonstrates that wights can be cut apart with ordinary weapons without dying or showing pain. Jon then burns the wight's arm, and the wight expresses pain. He finally kills the wight with a dagger of dragonglass. The White Walkers later lead the wight army out of the Haunted Forest to the Wall, marching close to Eastwatch-by-the-Sea before stopping, seemingly relieving the Eastwatch garrison, Tormund and Beric Dondarrion among them. Suddenly, the Night King, riding the undead Viserion, bursts from the sky and has Viserion breathe magical blue fire onto the Wall, creating a breach that nullifies the ancient spells of the Wall and allows the White Walkers and the wights to cross at last."The Dragon and the Wolf" Season 8 The surviving Free Folk, Brotherhood Without Banners, and Night's Watch members encounter each other at Last Hearth after abandoning The Wall. There they find the castle's inhabitants butchered and mutilated by the Army of the Dead. In the great hall they see a spiral made of human arms and Ned Umber pinned at the center. Beric Dondarrion says it is a message from the Night King at which point Ned reanimates as a wight and tries to attack Tormund but Beric lights the wight and the spiral on fire with his sword."Winterfell" Remaining at a distance from Winterfell, the White Walkers send their wights into the Battle of Winterfell against the alliance of living armies after the wights stop a Dothraki charge, killing most of the Dothraki screamers. The wights overwhelm the defending Unsullied and slaughter the Northern and Vale soldiers and knights, forcing the Targaryen, Stark, and Arryn forces to fall back behind the castle's walls. The wights are stopped when Melisandre lights the massive trench surrounding Winterfell on fire, but the Night King commands them to move forward, and some wights throw themselves on the fire to cover it and allow the rest of the Army of the Dead to pass through the breaches. The wights are able to get through into Winterfell, massing up the castle walls. A wight giant breaks through Winterfell's gates but is killed by Lyanna Mormont, who dies from being crushed by the giant's hand. The dead continue to fight the living inside the walls of Winterfell. After retreating inside, Arya Stark finds herself sneaking around wights in Winterfell's library, but she is discovered and forced to run. Arya is saved by Sandor Clegane and Lord Beric Dondarrion, who sacrifices himself saving Arya from the wights. Outside, the Night King uses the wight dragon Viserion to melt one of Winterfell's towers, and even after being knocked off a cut Viserion, the Night King advances towards Winterfell, though on foot. Jon Snow charges at the Night King but is unable to reach him before the Night King, once again, reanimates the dead as wights in front on Jon, and all those who have fallen fighting the Army of the Dead at Winterfell rise again as wights, holding Jon off. Jon is rescued by Daenerys Targaryen on Drogon and pursues the Night King into Winterfell, but Daenerys falls off Drogon when he is attacked by wights, causing Drogon to fly away. Daenerys is alone and surrounded by wights until Ser Jorah Mormont comes to her defense, though he dies protecting his queen. Many wights follow the White Walkers as they enter through Winterfell's gates and regroup with the Night King at the Winterfell godswood, where the Night King aims to kill the new Three-Eyed Raven, Bran Stark. However, the Night King is destroyed by Arya Stark before he can kill Bran, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the White Walkers, which the Night King created, and their wights, which the White Walkers each created. This ends the Army of the Dead."The Long Night" Appearances Quotes Behind the scenes *At first, in the TV series wights were presented as fairly slow-moving, zombie-like creatures, as in the books. However, the wights that attack Bran's group in "The Children", as well as those that attack the wildlings and the Night's Watch in the Massacre at Hardhome, are quite fast, and have rotted to the point that they are little more than skeletons. Director of "The Children" Alex Graves confirmed in a subsequent interview that this was indeed an homage to special effects legend Ray Harryhausen's famous stop-motion skeleton warriors fight scene in the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts. Graves stated that the homage was his suggestion, which Benioff and Weiss then agreed to. Graves said: ::"When I read the outline, I called David and Dan, I went straight to Hollywood and met them and I said, 'Are we talking about the zombie guys that we've been doing or could these guys be viciously dangerous?’ They said, 'Oh, yeah, that would be great.' So they go across this snow plain and skeletons start to come out of the snow, à la Ray Harryhausen, who we sort of privately dedicated the sequence to. They come out of the snow at 90 miles per hour, and they are there to kill Brandon and Jojen before they get there, and they've been waiting for like a thousand years. Nobody knew about the sequence and it wasn't in any of the marketing, which is the most brilliant marketing move I've seen."http://winteriscoming.net/2014/06/18/director-alex-graves-details-key-scenes-season-4-finale/ *The wights that attack Bran's group actually aren't entirely CGI creations, but stuntmen wearing greenscreen suits, with heavy prosthetics then added on over them, i.e. parts that aren't too rotted away such as their head or chest are prosthetics, but an arm that had entirely rotted away to nothing but bone was produced by having the stuntman wear a long green sleeve which could then be digitally replaced.http://watchersonthewall.com/new-blu-ray-video-extra-game-of-thrones-fallen-roundtable/ *While the faster wights might started out as an homage to Harryhausen in Season 4, director Miguel Sapochnik explained that Benioff and Weiss stressed to him that for Season 5's "Hardhome" they wanted to visually distinguish wights from more traditional "zombies" (such as featured on The Walking Dead), apparently worried that in the visual medium of television, audiences would find them too generic. Sapochnik said: ::"Movement was a big thing, making them feel like they swarmed where possible. The writers wanted to distinguish them as not zombies. They are puppets for the Night King. And they don’t think; they just pick a target and go after it until it’s dead, or they are cut into enough pieces they can’t chase it any more."http://www.mtv.com/news/2173859/game-of-thrones-hardhome-interview/ *Wights in the novels are indeed not exactly like zombies: they can't turn other people into wights with infectious bites, every body part keeps moving even if amputated, etc. (the term "revenant" is a closer description). Wight prosthetics stages In Season 5, prosthetics supervisor Barry Gower explained that the production team has developed three different categories or stages of wight prosthetics, based on how much they have decomposed:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9q1CXdqtXM *1 - "Super Fresh" - have only been dead about one or two weeks. Their skin is dead and discolored, but except for major injuries that killed them, they are relatively intact and recognizable. *2 - "Mid Decomps" - mid-decomposition; they've been dead for about six months to two years. Physically intact but much more rotten, with dried dead skin stretched taut across their faces. On many of them their lips have rotted away or been gnawed off in the process of attacking others, permanently exposing their teeth. *3 - "Greenscreens" - dead for so long that large chunks of their bodies have rotted away, and they are near-skeletal, requiring greenscreen suits to depict. The "Greenscreen" wights are achieved by having stuntmen wear a mix of heavy prosthetics and large patches of greenscreen clothing - in post-production this is digitally replaced with exposed bones, holes in their heads, etc. (negative space that it would be impossible for real prosthetics to depict). In the books In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the Others (the book term for the White Walkers) are able to animate corpses, human and animals alike, to serve them as footmen or mounts. According to old records, the Others are capable of reviving any dead animal as a wight, such as horses, dogs, and bears - and potentially direwolves, mammoths, giants, ice spiders, and even aquatic animals. Exactly how the White Walkers reanimate corpses into wights has never been revealed in the narrative, though it apparently occurs fairly quickly and can be done in the field: after Waymar Royce is killed by the Others Will flees, but only a few minutes later he is attacked by Waymar's reanimated corpse. The TV series in Season 5 simply showed the Night King silently raising his arms, at which thousands of corpses rose as wights. There is no mentioning in the novels that the Others can revive dead dragons, as seen on the show, but it is not impossible, given that they can revive dead humans and animals. Wights are easily identified by their eyes having turned bright blue like two blue stars, regardless of the eye color they had while being alive. When they are destroyed, the blue disappears from their eyes. Unlike the Others, they are slow and clumsy. They have a queer, cold scent that can panic animals if they catch a whiff of it. Wights may lie motionless for days and will not rot, not even stink; no scavengers or maggots will disturb them. When Othor and Jafer's bodies were brought to Castle Black, one of the strange things that the onlookers noticed about them was that both corpses had blue eyes, while they had different eye color in their lives. In the corresponding scene of the TV series, none of the corpses has blue eyes. When Othor the wight fights Jon, it has blue eyes, but they are not glowing. When the wights are dismembered, they continue to attack as if no harm happened to them, while the severed limbs continue to function independently regardless of what happens to the body itself, as happened to Jon while fighting the wight Othor: Jon cut off Othor's arm, yet the severed limb grabbed at his calf, and he barely managed to pry the fingers off his leg. The severed hand that Ghost tore off Jafer's corpse continued to twitch and stir even after Jafer was destroyed, until it finally had rotted away while Alliser Thorne was waiting for an audience at King's Landing. Not even beheading a wight will stop it: the wight of Jafer Flowers continued to move around and even kill after its head was cut off. Dragonglass, which is lethal to the Others, is useless against wights - unlike the TV show wights. Sam discovers that by trial-and-error: on the way to Castle Black, a wight attacks him and Gilly (in the show it was replaced with an Other). Sam stabs the wight with a dragonglass dagger, and the dagger shatters to pieces. Sam stabs the wight with his steel dagger, but it just bounces off the wight's iron mail (it would hardly matter even if the wight was not armored, since stabbing does not affect wights, as Jon discovered). Desperately, Sam grabs a burning piece of wood and shoves it into the wight's mouth. The wight is immediately destroyed, but shortly afterwards Sam and Gilly are surrounded by dozens of wights. They are saved by a mysterious person called Coldhands and a pack of ravens, that attack the wights and tear them apart. Later, Sam tells Melisandre about the anomaly, that what kills Others is ineffective against wights. She explained "Necromancy animates these wights, yet they are still only dead flesh. Steel and fire will serve for them. The ones you call the Others are something more". Thus far, fire is still the only effective weapon against wights. After becoming Lord Commander, in the fifth novel Jon Snow explicitly points out to his men that they really don't know how intelligent or self-aware wights are. They've never seen a wight talk, but that doesn't necessarily prove that they can't, or if wights can understand what it said to them (or if the White Walkers can hear through them, etc.). Jon also recalls that (back in the first novel) the wight of Othor that he killed remembered specifically what route to take in Castle Black to get to Jeor Mormont's chamber. Jon commands that two wildling corpses be put into one of the ice cells in the Wall, chained in irons, hoping that if and when they rise again as wights the Watch can study them for weaknesses - but they stubbornly remain dead (possibly because there are no White Walkers nearby to reanimate them). To be clear, being bitten by a wight will not turn someone into a wight. Wights can only be created by the White Walkers when they reanimate corpses. Although they share some characteristics with classic depictions of "zombies", they aren't the same thing. Of course, a major part of the White Walkers' tactics still involves the exponential zombie growth rate of their hordes of wights: people killed by a wight (not bitten, but just with a sword, etc.) can then in turn be resurrected into more wights by the White Walkers, who will in turn kill even more people so the White Walkers can turn them into even more wights, ad infinitum. See also * (MAJOR spoilers from the books) References de:Wiedergänger es:Espectros fr:Spectre nl:Ondoden pl:Upiory pt-br:Criaturas ru:Вихты uk:Віхти zh:尸鬼 Category:Featured Articles Category:Legendary and Magical Creatures Category:White Walkers Category:Wights Category:Magic